Thanks to those who came out for last Thursday’s GrepBeat Happy Hour in Raleigh, sponsored by our friends at Fourscore Business Law. Here are some pics on LinkedIn, and there are even more on our Instagram. We had so much fun that we’d like to host another Happy Hour in 2021—on Thursday, Dec. 2—provided we get a sponsor. So reach out if you want your company’s name in lights!
If you haven’t done so already, you should also check out the latest Friday Nooner, with co-host Chantal Allam (WRAL TechWire) and guest Sonja Ebron (Courtroom5). Remember, The Friday Nooner is now a podcast, too. Speaking of Courtroom5, they are one of a number of Triangle startups participating in Venture Atlanta, which takes place tomorrow and Thursday.
The Download
This week’s edition of The Download from our own Brooks Malone (Hughes Pittman’s man about town) features Patrick Dunnigan, a partner at healthcare-focused growth equity firm River Cities Capital Funds. River Cities is HQ’d in Cincinnati but also has a longtime Raleigh office, which is where Patrick is based. Though it seems he spends plenty of time in coffee shops judging by how many he name-drops, which of course we wholeheartedly support. Read the full Q&A here.
RIoT Demo Night
I spent last night at the Raleigh Convention Center checking out RIoT Demo Night, which partners with the still-ongoing All Things Open conference (which we had previewed here). The event was purely virtual last year for obvious reasons, so it was good to get back there in person, albeit while wearing masks as a nod to reality. We enjoyed seeing a lot of startups that we’ve previously written about, including MyMatR, qcard, Green Stream Technologies, EDJX, Acta Solutions, Blue Recruit and Klarrio. (And yes, I just used the “GrepBeat we.”) And of course I/we were excited to see the "Where's Pete?"-winning RIoT team.
You can check out our Tweet with a video of a Frisbee-throwing robot from last night.
Name Game
After more than two decades, Morrisville-based martech (marketing tech) InMotionNow is changing its name to Lytho. The name wasn’t simply pulled out of the air—InMotionNow acquired Netherlands-based Lytho in April, and has now decided to take on that name for the combined company. Pre-merger, InMotionNow focused on SaaS tools to manage the workflow of creating content, especially for marketing purposes, while the “old” Lytho focused on digital asset management for whatever’s been created. Thus the combined company can manage the entire content lifecycle.
The name is also meant to evoke lithography, the 18th-century printing process that was groundbreaking for replicating text and art. Boy, I shudder to think how late the GrepBeat newsletter would be if we (the GrepBeat we) needed to set it in physical type. Brrrr. [TBJ has more info.]
Cleaning Up
Chapel Hill-based UltraLoop, a startup led by two UNC students that makes portable sanitation devices that use UV-C waves to zap germs—which we wrote about last fall—has reportedly raised $225K. I was about the say that the prototype of the germ-zapper is about the size of a breadbox, but does anybody under 40 have any idea what that means?
And... now I’ve been sucked down a Wikipedia rabbit hole that explains that “is it bigger than a breadbox?” was popularized by Steve Allen when he hosted the TV game show What’s My Line?, and now I am forced to wonder if anybody under 40 has any idea who Steve Allen is, and how I’m ever going to have time to set this newsletter in linotype, and...
Cleaning Up 2
Sometimes, the sweet smell of success can come from simply preventing things from totally stinking up the house. At least that’s the case with Raleigh-based startup UTTy, which Triangle Inno profiled earlier this week. Founder and CEO Mark Uttridge’s sons played competitive hockey and generated a lot of sweaty, smelly equipment that needed to be aired out. With some trial and error he came with a “universal gear storage solution” with handy hooks that can be hung in a closet or elsewhere. It’s already hit $225K in sales and could crack $1M in 2022.
The device (and company) is called the “UTTy” because that was Mark's sons’ nickname from their hockey buddies, and as someone who was friends with a lot of hockey players in college, I can attest that “Utty” is a classic hockey nickname for someone name “Uttridge.” Basically hockey players just slap a “y” or “sy” or “s” or someone’s last name—or maybe make it plural with a “-ys” or “-ies”—and call it a day. They evidently save their creativity for the ice.
Southeast Synergy
We mentioned Venture Atlanta up top, and here’s another example of how Triangle startups can benefit by relationships with A-Town: Atlanta-based VC Overline is closing its second fund. While Overline’s first fund was for early-stage companies, this second fund will write checks of about $1M to startups that are further along—including, potentially, those in the Triangle. Overline already counts one Triangle startup in its portfolio: Resultid, which we wrote about last year under its previous name, NanoVest. Triangle Inno has more info.
ICYMIs
Here are some ICYMIs from late last week: 1) Former GrepBeat story subjects LiRA and (Greppys winner) Flux Hybrids took 1st and 2nd place, respectively, in The Launch Place’s Big Launch Challenge. Here’s the full story from TechWire and Triangle Inno. 2) Triangle Inno ran an interesting follow-up, first-person account from recent Exit Stories guest Richard Holcomb that explains the innovative, company-making royalty deal he made with Microsoft for $1-per-Excel-copy-sold some 30+ years ago; 3) Also in Triangle Inno, some good advice on how to make a hybrid office strategy work from Spreedly CEO Justin Benson, who had been hybrid before the pandemic. One pro tip: you probably need more conference rooms.
Build Great Software
Founded by serial entrepreneurs, Dualboot is a business and software development company. Their clients include tech and non-tech founders as well as Fortune 500 companies, so they can start small or scale fast depending on what you need. Every client is assigned a U.S.-based Product Director with at least 10 years experience bringing products to market, and they can manage the entire development process. They focus on how the software fits into your company to drive revenue and build the business. At Dualboot, they don’t just write your software—they help you grow your business. Intrigued? Email them here.
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Guess where Pete is and (maybe) win a GrepBeat mug!
